State Budget Chief Sees `Lean Year`

January 23, 1986|By Kurt Greenbaum, Chicago Tribune.

SPRINGFIELD — As Gov. James Thompson launched his trade mission to the Far East, the state`s budget director predicted Wednesday that the fiscal 1987 budget would indicate a ``lean year,`` with cutbacks likely for some state agencies.

In his midyear report on the state`s finances, Robert Mandeville, budget director, also predicted that the state would fall far short of its projected year-end balance, with only $220 million left in the treasury instead of the $404 million that had been projected. The 1986 fiscal year will end on June 30.

``I am painting a picture of a lean year--not grim, lean,`` Mandeville said. ``I would expect some agencies will get less in `87 than `86.`` But he added that ``there are not going to be cuts in current services.``

Major commitments to education by the governor and the General Assembly

``will take the bulk of new revenue`` from several taxes enacted in the spring and fall sessions last year, Mandeville said, and that is why he forecast little revenue growth in the next fiscal year.

``It was felt necessary to give the large increase in `86 to show that we were serious about education and education reform,`` Mandeville said. But he added that even in education spending, ``the same kind of increase simply won`t be there in `87.``

Some of the revenue sources have not met the budget bureau`s projections for this fiscal year, he said.

Mandeville would not mention which agencies or programs would face cuts, saying he preferred to wait until the governor delivers his budget address in March.

``We frankly haven`t made all the final decisions,`` he said.

A two-month delay in the 8-cent-a-pack cigarette tax increase, a cap on utility taxes and a lawsuit challenging the state`s new tax on in-state long- distance telephone calls have held down the state`s receipts, he said.

Mandeville also said the impact the federal Gramm-Rudman deficit-reduction package would be minimal, but noticeable, this fiscal year.

He said the major impact would occur in the social services bloc grant, where cuts would amount to $6 million over two years--$3 million in Illinois` current fiscal year and another $3 million in the next. One federal information agency, however, predicted that cuts would amount to as much as $40 million initially.

Mandeville said that agency, Federal Funds Information for States, interprets the reduction measure more broadly and includes funds for such things as state highways, mental health programs and the Low Income Home Energy Assistance program.